Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Tony Snow, the Fox News fox, is now in charge of the HenHouse Press Room. But the former Bush 41 speechwriter and conservative television commentator's track-record of knocking his new boss makes his new appointment as press secretary a bit dubious. What exactly is the logic behind Bush's decision here? Is his new strategery one of self-deprecation? "Hey, no one can bash me better than me and my own staff!" Or will Snow simply forget everything negative he's ever said about Bush and start drinking the Bushevik Kool-Aid? Given all the bad press and poll numbers Bush has had to contend with lately, perhaps Snow's mission will be to use the podium to spin, lie and deceive more than ever. Scott McClellan, by comparison, could end up looking like Abe Lincoln.

Here's a partial list of Tony Snow's Reasons Why I Think My New Boss is a Dummy:"

-Bush has "lost control of the federal budget and cannot resist the temptation to stop raiding the public fisc." (3/17/06)

– "George W. Bush and his colleagues have become not merely the custodians of the largest government in the history of humankind, but also exponents of its vigorous expansion." (3/17/06)

-On South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds' abortion ban: "President Bush brushed off South Dakota, repeating his oft-stated belief in exceptions for pregnancies initiated through rape and incest. Not a single Republican of stature uttered so much as an "attaboy." (3/10/06)

– "President Bush distilled the essence of his presidency in this year’s State of the Union Address: brilliant foreign policy and listless domestic policy." (2/3/06)

– "George Bush has become something of an embarrassment." (11/11/05)

- "George Bush's desire to court the opposition explains his refusal to veto a single measure as president, including the execrable campaign-finance reform law. It also accounts for his meek surrender when Democrats killed most of his faith-based initiatives, watered down his attempts to overhaul public education, and slapped back his quest to reform an unforgivably dishonest and shaky Social Security system." (10/7/05)

– Bush "has a habit of singing from the Political Correctness hymnal." (10/7/05)

– "No president has looked this impotent this long when it comes to defending presidential powers and prerogatives." (9/30/05)

– Bush "has given the impression that [he] is more eager to please than lead, and that political opponents can get their way if they simply dig in their heels and behave like petulant trust-fund brats, demanding money and favor — now!" (9/30/05)

– "When it comes to federal spending, George W. Bush is the boy who can’t say no. In each of his three years at the helm, the president has warned Congress to restrain its spending appetites, but so far nobody has pushed away from the table mainly because the president doesn’t seem to mean what he says." (The Detroit News, 12/28/03]

– "The president doesn’t seem to give a rip about spending restraint." (The Detroit News, 12/28/03)

- "Bush tried in passing to court black voters, but he got the lowest percentage of the African-American vote in the post-Jim Crow era." (11/16/00)

– "Bush, for all his personal appeal, ultimately bolstered his detractors’ claims that he didn’t have the drive and work ethic to succeed." (11/16/00)

– "Little in the character of demeanor of Al Gore or George Bush makes us say to ourselves: Now, this man is truly special! Little in our present peace and prosperity impels us to say: Give us a great man!" (8/25/00)

– "George W. Bush, meanwhile, talks of a pillowy America, full of niceness and goodwill. Bush has inherited his mother’s attractive feistiness, but he also got his father’s syntax. At one point last week, he stunned a friendly audience by barking out absurd and inappropriate words, like a soul tortured with Tourette’s." (8/25/00)

– "He recently tried to dazzle reporters by discussing the vagaries of Congressional Budget Office economic forecasts, but his recitation of numbers proved so bewildering that not even his aides could produce a comprehensible translation. The English Language has become a minefield for the man, whose malaprops make him the political heir not of Ronald Reagan, but Norm Crosby." (8/25/00)

– "On the policy side, he has become a classical dime-store Democrat. He gladly will shovel money into programs that enjoy undeserved prestige, such as Head Start. He seems to consider it mean-spirited to shut down programs that rip-off taxpayers and mislead supposed beneficiaries." (8/25/00)